After the funeral of a girl who was claimed to be Tanya Shinnok, several people found a message hidden in the cemetery next to a tomb. The message was written in code, as if the person who wrote the message was either insane or was trying to hide something.

“I don’t know what is going on, but it’s probably gibberish,” said a man as he read the message.

“Who knows?” said another man,” said another man as he saw the message. “All I know is that Tanya Shinnok is dead and someone knows what’s going on. We need to call the police and make that person talk.”

The message read as follows:

To the player MARA of the game, the alien PEARL, the actor STUART, the fashionista IRENE, I DO explain the ill-fated tiger that would NOT kern, so BELIEVE sevenworm will take you to places you never expected not to visit! THE light at the end of the tunnel bathes in sunlight. The RUMORS could please even the most demanding follower of Freud. THAT flow of quizzes is not enough. I AM not yet ready to die. Clear water is running DEAD.

I AM NOT DEAD is nonsensical, much like me. Clear water is a storyteller without equal NOR rival. AM I Evita hammer? TANYA SHINNOK was always the second best.

I can get both high and low. Enqoyism HAVE the prime minister. The light at the end of the tunnel BEEN running away. Another day is KIDNAPPED. A cranky old lady gambles with lives, happiness, and BY destiny itself! MASON DORKINS wants to set things right. The sky gambles with lives, happiness, AND even destiny itself! HARVEY NADLER is good for you.

THEY shoots pineapples with a machinegun. That way ARE omni-present, much like candy. KEEPING a principal idea is not enough. Tranquility is omni-present, much like ME. A setback of the heart would scare any HIDDEN linguist away. IN an old apple has its world rocked by THE trees. Pinocchio tells the tale of GREEN towers. A glittering gem wants to go to HILL. A small MANOR is still not very coherent.

THEY woke the prime minister. Wondrous ARE is like a summer breeze. Two-finger John runs through PUNISHING everything. YOU stole the goods. is like a painted flower; FOR it never wilts. A sickingly prodigous profile is like ABANDONING a summer breeze. TANSY has your skin crawling. Pinocchio gambles with lives, happiness, AND even destiny itself! LAVINIA loves to love.

I could please even the most demanding follower of Freud. A glittering gem WILL say goodbye to the shooter. Sevenworm REMAIN in authority. THERE, stew and rum makes people shiver. UNTIL now, token of gratitude was always the second best. A fly will take YOU to places you never expected not to visit! That way can GRIEVE both high and low. Gasoline comes asking for THEIR bread. A wave loudly clashing against a long shoreline has its world rocked by their DEATHS.

“I really don’t understand what’s going on with this message, but we should take this to the police,” said the first man. “Maybe they might know what’s going on in the message.”

“We should,” said the second man, “if only to have them decode this message. It might not be gibberish like we thought.”

The men stared at the message again, wondering what was going on. They had no idea that the message was written using two different colored inks, nor did they see the secret message that was hidden within the original message.

Mara Pearl Stuart Irene do not believe the rumor that I am deadI am not dead nor am I Tanya Shinnok I have been kidnapped by Mason Dorkins and Harvey NadlerThey are keeping me hidden in the Green Hill ManorThey are punishing you for abandoning Tansy and LaviniaI will remain there until you grieve their deaths

Before the story about Taylor Parker’s disappearance and how she was erroneously known as my cousin Tanya Shinnok, I once knew a girl named Christina McAllen. If anything, Christina reminded you of Taylor; she had a way of making you feel special, but bullied those who sought to destroy her. In hindsight, Christina and Taylor weren’t that much different, but they were.

I knew Christina from my days in St. Francis Elementary School, when one of the teachers made me and three other girls named Joanna Marshall, Sabella Tucker, and Rebecca Walker sit with her at lunchtime. The rest of the school bullied anyone else who spoke to Christina until they dumped her. The funny thing was, though, no one in the school bothered Joanna, Sable, Becky, or me, not even if we spoke to Christina in a public place.

And what Christina went through, Taylor also went through, yet Taylor didn’t experience the abuse Christina went through. I wondered what did Taylor have that Christina didn’t have in terms of being treated kindly in the school? Something had to give.

Yet, when Christina disappeared, no one seemed to care. No one liked her, and they were more than relieved when the news broke out that Christina was gone. Not so with Taylor, as when she disappeared, the police tore apart the city until she was eventually found and returned to her family. As for Christina, she was found dead TWO years after she disappeared. The person who found her dead went into witness protection to protect him from the people who would come after him for finding Christina’s remains.

So, what’s the clue in this story? It seemed that people preferred Taylor over Christina, which was why the police was willing to help find Taylor and leave Christina to die. And believe me, that’s the worst part about this story.

“Dear friends, I am not dead. Meet me at the Blue Sun Theater on Tuesday at 8PM. ~Taylor Parker.”

Stuart Greer, Mara Llewellyn, Irene Haughton, and Pearl Tanner frowned as they stared at the message they were given. The funeral had just ended, with the mourners standing around the Sarah Jane Green Memorial Gardens, talking about Taylor and how and why she didn’t deserve to die. The Parker family (which consisted of Benjamin, Aimee, Billy, Aubrey, and Ashton) were speaking to the mourners and ignoring the rainy weather that fell upon the city of Harrison Creek, Oregon.

“I wonder if this is a joke,” said Mara as the others stared at the note. “Taylor’s dead. The police found her body at the Green Hill Manor a few days ago.”

“But how do they know the body is actually Taylor’s?” said Irene.

“Fake, or different person,” said Pearl.

“Exactly,” said Stuart. “Don’t forget, we’ve heard the story about Tracey Powell and how she disappeared around the same time Taylor did.”

“I’ve noticed,” said Mara. “Nobody could have known about Tracey, not unless…”

She grabbed the note again, saying, “Maybe this note is true. Maybe Taylor’s still alive and they buried the wrong girl.”

“I hope you’re right,” said Irene.

“But we won’t know that for sure until we go to the theater on Tuesday,” said Stuart.

“I’m not sure that’s going to happen,” said Pearl. “Mayor put up curfew. We kids not allowed to go anywhere without adults.”

“Oh, so *NOW* they want to play it safe after the crap they went through with trying to get us to put down our phones and tablets and get off the computers and go outside,” said Irene. “That’s not happening!”

“Not unless Team Sescape investigates this mystery letter,” said Stuart.

To make this long story short, Team Sescape stood in front of the Blue Sun Theater the following Tuesday at 8PM. It was a slow day, with only a few people coming to the theater to watch movies. Just then, a girl wearing a white coat decorated with red roses came out of a dark car that pulled in front of the theater. She saw the kids and said to them, “I was beginning to think you didn’t get my message. Did you miss me?”

“Well, I can’t say I’m glad this is happening,” Stuart Greer said to his friends Mara Llewellyn, Irene Haughton, and pearl tanner as they all sat in the courtroom. It had been two and a half months since the trial of Mrs. Schindler began. And to be honest, many people expected her to plead insanity and avoid the entire thing.

(In case you forgot, Mrs. Schindler was accused of cyberstalking and cyberbullying the kids after their friend/ringleader Tanya Chinook disappeared without a trace in 2010. Mrs. Schindler was also accused of hampering police efforts to find Tanya and return her to the Shinnok family.)

“Oh, but it is,” said Irene with a weird smile on her face. “It was already bad enough when Mrs. Brezetta was found guilty of orchestrating Tanya’s kidnapping and was sent to that mental hospital in Montana, but this is ridiculous. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I know she isn’t going to be let off with a warning.”

“But still, she’s Tara’s mom,” said Mara, “and we can’t wish she’d go to jail, no even to keep us safe.”

“She stalked Tara too,” said Pearl.

“Yeah, and that too,” said Stuart.

To make a long story short, Georgette Schindler was found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The group all sighed with relief, knowing that the nightmare Mrs. Schindler had put them through was over.

As his friends chatted about various things, Thomas Stone stepped out of the clubhouse. Earlier, he had been warned to be careful whenever he stepped out of the clubhouse, as there were people out there who were looking to kidnap him. She know that there are many people living in the city of Harrison Creek, Oregon that did not like him for various ( and rather pathetic) reasons.

Such as the person who had been watching him and his friends for a few weeks now.

The person was dressed in bright yellow clothes with a long black overcoat covering his body. The person was also wearing a pair of dark glasses and a fedora. As soon as he saw Thomas, he approached him, saying, “Are you Thomas Stone?”

“Yeah,” Thomas said without so much as skipping a beat. “What’s it to you?”

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been causing plenty of undue trouble for this city,” said the person, “and I think it’s time for you to go.”

“Where am I going?” Thomas quickly began to panic. “Who are you? Why are you doing this? Who sent you here? Have you been stalking me and my friends? What is going on here?”

Instead of answering his questions, the person pulled out a rope from his coat pocket and tied him up. As soon as he was bound and gagged, he took him to a black car and drove away from the clubhouse.

“Let me out! Let me out of here!” Thomas screamed as she pounded on the bottom of the trunk door. “Let me out of here this instant!” But the kidnapper ignored his protests. “You can’t do this to me!” Thomas continued to yell. “I know people, big-named people. When they find out that you talk me, they will hunt you down and tear you apart!”

Yet the kidnapper ignored him as the car continued to drive further and further away from the clubhouse, and farther away from her friends. If anything, Thomas knew that Sadie, Isaac, Michael, and Paul would know he was missing. They would call the police without much hesitation.

To his shock, nothing of that sort happened. In fact, no one knew that he was missing at all. Not until a few days had passed.

But what did happen was the black car stopping at what appeared to be a storage place. Before he knew what was happening, Thomas found himself being pulled out of the trunk. Still bound and gagged, he was carried into the storage building. Another person who was dressed in a dark coat and a fedora notice the first person said, “Were you able to get him?”

“I must admit I had a bit of a struggle restraining him, but not to worry, he’s here now,” said the first person. “And if we play our cards right, no one will ever know that he existed.”

“Good,” said the second person, “but now we must move onto phase 2 of the plan. We have already planted the seeds of hate in this town, especially where those boys concerned. Won’t take long for the police to round up those people on that list and have them taken to jail. The sooner that happens, the sooner we can deal with those Teen Rebels.”

“I agree,” said the first person. “I’m getting real tired of chasing those kids around. Don’t they have anything better to do than to hang out with each other?”

“That is our next project,” said the second person. “Now take that little brat and put him into our cubby hole; we have bigger fish to fry.”

As the two evil people left the place, Thomas untied himself and scrambled around the tiny storage area; he didn’t have any time to waste. He had overheard a plot against his friends and the city they lived in, and he needed to get that information out before it was too late…

Michael Lowery, Sadie Green, and Isaac Hammond had graduated from Harrison Creek High School, the school they were forced to attend due to their “unforgivable sin” of befriending the hated Thomas Stone many years ago. To be honest, the kids don’t have much of a choice in that matter.

“I can’t believe that this is over,” said Michael.

“I’m not,” said Sadie with a strange look on her face. “It’s just like that story is repeating itself.”

“Like when we got that letter from the Stranger?” said Paul Turner, who at age 14 was the youngest high school graduate. They all stared at him. “At least Mr. Stewart won’t be cyber-stalking us from behind bars.”

“It’s our last day here,” said Michael with a look of concern on his face. “After this, there is no more. Our time as high schoolers is over, as is our lives as teenagers. Soon, it’s off to college with us. Isaac, you’re doing fashion design in San Diego, Sadie, you’re heading to D.C., and I’m going into game design at Texas A&M. It’s time for us to end our youth and prepare to enter the harsh and complicated, for better or worse.”

“I know,” said Sadie, with tears on her face. “It’s so hard to say goodbye to everything we know. We’re all going our separate ways and I don’t know if we’re ever going to see each other again.”

“We still have Facebook,” said Paul.

“But for how long,” said Isaac. “We could be making new friends within a month and forget the friends we had in high school. It’s a thing that I fear the most.”

Shane Stone, overhearing the conversation, came to them, saying, “Don’t think of this as the end. Instead, think of this as a new beginning, a time for new discoveries and new experiences. We have the future before us, but we can’t have that future if we keep holding onto the past. Like, remember when you had to let go of Thomas and move on with your lives and enjoy your high years. Now that those years are ending, we need to let go of our youth and go on with our lives. Besides, you’ll never know when you’re going to see each other again. I wondering if I’ll see you guys again; after all, my other friends and I are jetting off to Fresno next week.”

He said to them, “Well I had fun hanging out with you guys, but it’s time for me to head back to California and my other friends. I’ll see you on the flip side.”

With that, he bounded out the room.

Michael, Sadie, Isaac, and Paul stood together for the final time, knowing that even though all things (such as their high school years) ended, they knew that for better or worse, they would see a brand-new beginning.